Samsara
by tamedbanshee
Summary: A thousand lifetimes put together couldn't wipe away a person's faults. SI!OC.
1. Intro Arc: New Face

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** Yup, I'm here with another convoluted OC plot. It's one I've had running around in my head for a little while now, so this is going to be a twist on the ol' _Dropped into the Naruto Series_ OC thing - because whilst that **is** what this is, it's a little more complicated than that. Hopefully I'll get to explain this in later chapters. I am, shamelessly addicted to these kind of stories so if you have any recommendations, I would love those! I do hope you guys enjoy this because it's only going to go downhill from here! I don't own Naruto, I don't own anything in this story except for Yuna and even that's a bit of a stretch.

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My name is Yuna, but it hasn't always been.

It's not a case of changed identity nor is it a nickname. I've had a lot of names, a long list and if we're being completely honest, I can't remember where it all began. It's a little sad, that I don't remember my first name - who I truly was before all this fuckery got in the way. Not that it mattered, with every new name came a new walk of life but not a new me. Does that make sense?

Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I think they're just fucking about now.

Yeah, yeah, _be thankful for your second chance_ , _you should be grateful!_ It's nothing I haven't heard before or at least _imagined_ it being said to me if I ever told anyone - not that I have, that's a one-way ticket to a mental asylum. But really, second chances are great! Third chances are okay! After that, it just sort of… _spirals_.

Each name is different, I start off differently, new family and friends and home. They're all different but end in the same way - which is death. That might be a little obvious. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to make it into my twenties, the oldest I've been is twenty-six which is also a little sad now that I'm really thinking about it. I've had brothers and I've had sisters, a range of different parents and lived in a lot of exotic places - sometimes, I even get reborn into the same place twice but there's no residue left of me.

It's like I'm wiped clean, easily replaceable. The family that I might have loved and been a part of, none the wiser of the child they once had or should have had. Hell, I've come face to face with my previous mother and she'd simply smiled at me, another stranger on the street, no recognition whatsoever.

Sometimes, I hate it.

I hate that I can't seem to leave a mark on this world, this wonderful and bloody world which I'd been brought into. Other times, I think it's probably for the best; I've done some stupid shit in some of my lives, started fights, _started wars_ , fallen in love. Some lives were better left forgotten and that name cleared from the earth.

This life though was what I was experiencing right now; my mum was a beautiful woman - I remember that being my first coherent thought outside of my cussing.

Infantile amnesia is hit and miss, sometimes the first couple of years are a blur and other times it's there with such a painstaking clarity that I wanted to scrub it clean from my brain. This time though I had been stuck with a painstaking clarity of how small, tiny and fragile I was whilst being cradled in this woman's arms. Her features were sharply elegant, reminding me of geishas from some time ago; whilst she could be perceived as cold her smile warmed her entire being - like a ray of light, dark eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed as she stared down at me.

Kaneko Chiho was a Jōnin when she gave birth to me, apparently she was a bit of a hard ass - at least what I gathered when people told me stories about my mum's adventures, or misadventures depending on who was divulging the story. She was a single mother and didn't give two shits about who my biological father was, not that it mattered, growing up - she was all I needed.

Not that it was easy, I was a curious child, easily distracted and prone to wandering off. I got bored quickly and required constant stimulation otherwise I'd end up in trouble.

Multiple lifetimes taught me that it was easier to go with your instincts at such a young age, sometimes I pushed myself to be better - sometimes I focused and made the cut to go to the Academy early; others, I took the civilian route but it was easier to go with what felt natural to this new tiny body I was put in once again. As Yuna, I was a dreamer. I loved butterflies and wanted nothing more than to see what was in people's bags.

"Ninja related nosiness." Chiho has scoffed playfully after catching me with my head practically submerged and I rummaged through her satchel, greedily clicking a couple of ryō together happily. I think it made her happy that we'd have something in common in the future, that I wanted to be like her. It wasn't like I could tell her that I'd been there and done the whole Shinobi thing before.

From an objective point of view, there was something interesting about the way different parents taught their kids. With multiple parents came different kinds of approaches, some took the soft approach, lessons every now and again, try your best and all that jazz. Chiho was a drill sergeant in another life, waking up at the crack of dawn and dragging me out to train. It was a few hours solid of stretches, running through stances and formations, target practice, whatever torture that mum could think of. By the time it was a _normal_ and _acceptable_ time to be awake, Chiho headed off to do whatever duties she had for the day and left me with a bit of money for lunch and a reminder to be careful as I wandered around. Some days I stayed at home and read everything I could, some days I spent wandering the streets and looking for trouble, as my mum claimed.

It wasn't that far off the truth. Whilst I'd lived in Konoha before, under a new name and face, a lot of things have changed since I was last here. Dizzying gaps between time, it was something that I had to, unfortunately, get used to. The Leaf Village was in a time of peace, though, a time where strangers smiled in the street and watched out for one another - it was cosy if a bit unnerving sometimes.

Piecing together lifetimes gave me an idea of certain things that would happen, certain things that would shake the Shinobi nations. The time of peace would last for a few years though from what I could remember until things started falling apart as quickly as they're sewn together.

"Good morning Yuna-chan!" Some vendors called out sweetly from their stands in the market as I strolled down the streets. Always polite and kind, I made an effort to come and talk to the vendors as I made my purchases - getting a few things for back home, things mum tended to forget every now and again when she was laden with her own heavy duties.

"Good morning Asami-san," I greeted the kindly woman, smiling at her as I picked out a selection of fruit and veg which mum would grumble about eating as if she was the child and I the parent. "How's your brother?" I ask conversationally as I hand over the correct amount for the produce, the lines in her face deepening as the woman's smiled widened.

"He's a lot better, mended his leg up nicely. Course, then our mother gave him such a telling off for getting hurt in the first place." The woman rolled her eyes and I couldn't help but laugh, her brother sounded like a handful from how Asami complained about him. "Occupational hazard, though."

We said goodbyes rather quickly as I headed down the street to our small home, and it wasn't the first time that I strolled past that particular alleyway but it was the first time I'd walked past there and saw him.

He was small, my height, probably my age physically and just looked so damn sad. Miserable actually, his shirt hung off of his body like it was too big to start with but no one would give him a shirt that would fit. Slumped down against the wall and slightly obscured by one of the bins, his knees were tucked against his chest whilst his chin rested on the scabs and bruises there. Staring morosely at his toes.

Maybe I could steal him? I didn't have a brother in this lifetime. I'm sure mum wouldn't mind another mouth to feed.

I was only a minute away from home, torn between leaving this sad boy to his sad thoughts and shuffling down there to make myself known. It was like being caught between a rock and hard place. I wasn't friendly with the other kids, in fact, the closest I was with someone other than my mum would probably be Asami or the other vendors that I had to frequently speak with. It wasn't that I didn't get on well with them, in truth when I lost myself to the four-year-old I was supposed to be- it was easy to make friends but I always gravitated towards being the motherly sort of friend. The one who looked out for everyone made sure everyone was okay, which was fine for the most part but the clear difference in maturity got to me sometimes.

My feet padded down the alleyway quietly and from my view point I could see him curl up on himself a little more - knees tucked tighter and his eyes squeezing shut as if he wished he could be anywhere but there. He was cute though, he reminded me of a boy that I once knew so many lives ago.

"Hi!" I greeted him quietly, chirpy almost as I stood there with a big bag of vegetables, trying to ignore the smell of trash wafting around us.

One eye peeked open, staring up at me with gritted teeth - like he waiting for a hit that I wouldn't be giving him. It took a while for him to even realise that I was talking to him actually, glancing down the alley as if to check if he was mistaken and I was actually talking to someone else. It was adorable, a tiny finger pointing at himself almost shyly - I nodded, eyebrow arched as if to say _of course I'm talking to you!_

"Hi!" He greeted, voice booming and his eyes sparkling and all that sadness seemed to evaporate with that lick of attention. "I haven't seen you around before, who're you?"

It was like a complete one-eighty, this spark, eyes glittering as he grinned at me but I did notice that he had yet to unfurl from his little ball of safety that he'd made for himself. He didn't trust easily and if he looked that sad, to begin with, he probably had a reason not to in my opinion. "I'm Yuna," I told him, reaching down to rummage in my bag, tongue sticking out as I shuffled around in the small bag until I pulled out the juiciest apple I bought from the market stall. "You want one?"

He blinked, obviously, not what he was expecting but it sort of had the reaction that I wanted - loosening the grip he had on his legs ever so slightly at the offering. His green goggles that were perched on the top of his head, sliding down ever so slightly at he stared at the fruit dumbly. I thought we were going to have another incident where he looked around as if to check that I was offering it to him and not to someone else.

"Thank you," he murmured, wary as our hands touched and pulling back with apple almost instantly as if I'd steal it back from him at a moment's notice. It was only when he had the food in his hands, taking a mighty bite out of it that he truly relaxed, legs unwinding to lay out straight - smiling as he munched on the snack. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Nice to meetcha!"

The name Naruto Uzumaki was one I'd heard in a dozen other lives, I'd never actually met him, though. I was always a country or two away, a different side of the world. And here he was, in his adorable whiskered glory. A bit loud but he seemed nice enough. His name would gain a reputation in later years from what I remembered, a kind guy who wanted nothing more than to protect his loved ones. It was admirable.

He was also the Jinchuuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox.

I'd only ever met one other Jinchuriki and that was in battle, I'd died swiftly, not to my surprise since I knew it was a death sentence walking into that battle. A lot of people were stupid, they mistook the host for the demon themselves. Anyone could be a monster, holding a demon didn't make him anymore or less likely to be a bad person - more so that the treatment of the Jinchuriki often left them with no other option. Naruto was rumoured to be kind, though, a big heart and apparently, a big mouth too.

"Are you training for the academy, Yume-chan? Do y'wanna be a ninja, huh?" He asked eagerly, sitting up taller as he finished off his apple, throwing it into the bin with great accuracy. It was like once he started talking he didn't stop, which was fine with me, I didn't get to talk with a lot of people and I didn't talk much myself. "I wanna be a super strong ninja, like Oji-san! I'm gonna be Hokage, dattebayo!"

I blinked, a little thrown off by the loud and proud exclamation but I couldn't resist the small grin. "Sounds like a big dream," I told him quietly, lowering myself to squat on the floor rather than to tower over him in all of my tiny glory. Head tilted to the side as I shuffled the bag, making sure not to squash anything as I sat down on the floor in front of him.

"The biggest, but I'm gonna do it." Naruto nodded, firmly and resolute in his dream. Adjusting the goggles on top of his head, he peered over curiously. "What about you, Yume-chan? You gonna be a ninja?"

"Probably," I mumbled, shrugging with a small smile. I liked being a Shinobi, the freedom, the wind in my hair, the idea of protecting something a lot bigger than myself. Sometimes my reasons weren't any more genuine than a need for more power, sometimes I simply wanted to be able to learn more - every place inspired different reasons and some inspired none at all. "My mum's a Jōnin, she's amazing."

For a second Naruto seemed to curl in on himself, but he looked a touch starstruck at the idea- a low, " _Wow!_ " coming from his lips at the idea. "You're mum's gotta be super strong then, huh?"

She was. I was starstruck myself at times by my own mum, a Shinobi in her prime it seemed- my birth did nothing to slow her down. If anything, it made her more determined. She was admirable, strong, determined but not without fault. No one was, including me. A thousand lifetimes put together couldn't wipe faults from a person.

"I guess she is," I nodded with a small smile, it was hard not to smile at Naruto - his cheer, his enthusiasm was almost infectious. I decided I wanted to keep him around. "D'you wanna come and have lunch with me?"

You'd think with the way that he stared at me that he had no idea what _lunch_ actually was - it made me a little angry actually. I knew Jinchuriki were often regarded with fear, I suppose I never actually thought about it in much detail though when it didn't apply to myself. Maybe that was selfish but unfortunately, that was life. Still, I locked away that drop of anger on Naruto's behalf, save it for a rainy day, smiling wider as if to emphasise the offer I made.

"C'mon, mum's left something in the fridge. We can share it." I offered eagerly, that swell of excitement at the idea of mum's cooking. Clambering to my feet, brushing off the dirt from my knees - I held out my hand for him once again and once more he reached for it hesitantly. His tan hand was warm as it clasped mind, he was startled when I heaved and made to lift him to his own feet as well.

"Are you sure your mum won't mind?" It didn't suit Naruto to be subdued. The stories about him told of a personality bigger than all of the nation's put together.

"Sure, my mum's always telling me I should make more friends."

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 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 2857**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 2857**


	2. Intro Arc: Connection

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** AH! Thank you guys for your reviews and your support! It means a lot to me! Still working out some of the kinks in the plot as well as how Yuna is going to fit around everyone within the Rookie Nine. I have plans on expanding a lot of things including Yuna's parents as well as her mother's life as a Shinobi - how both Yuna and her family will impact the main characters. All that jazz. It's a slow process but bare with me, yeah?

I do hope you guys enjoy this because it's only going to go downhill from here! I don't own Naruto, I don't own anything in this story except for Yuna and even that's a bit of a stretch. I also want to apologise for any spelling mistakes/grammar mistakes/stupid mistakes that I'm bound to make - I don't have a beta or anything like that, just a really poor attention span and spell check.

* * *

Naruto became an unexpected but welcomed staple to my early childhood.

I didn't really expect to see him again before the Academy if I was honest, I thought it was going to be a one-time thing and I'd simply be a face who was kind to him so many years ago. Imagine my surprise when I strolled past that same alleyway but two days later to see him stood there, not sitting behind the trash like he had before, but standing at the mouth of the alley with a worried gaze as he seemed to peel through the masses of people that streamed down the street.

There was a wave of giddiness, of pleasant surprise when his eyes lit up when he saw me. A warm feeling settling in my stomach as I waved back tentatively. His shoulder brushing against mine as he matched my pace and we talked as we walked the familiar route back to my place - where we'd spent the afternoon drawing and reading and laughing.

It carried on like that for a few days, he'd wait near that alley and after all the stretches/torture mum put me through - we'd head back to mine for lunch and just to muck about. So far, things had been going well - Naruto had almost made himself comfortable coming over, he didn't hover as much in the doorway like he expected someone with a broom to emerge and try to ward him out. He didn't seem to mind that I was quieter and he was left to fill in the gaps sometimes, his chatter was nice, like white noise.

It was only a matter of time before mum met him.

To be fair, it's not that I purposely kept them apart - it was more that their schedules didn't really intermingle. Naruto usually spent the day at ours when mum was doing whatever duties she had that day or visiting whatever friends needed to be visited; a lot of the time I was left home alone and that was fine. If I ever got into trouble, her old friends from her Genin days lived just down the road- they insisted I called them Uncles, they were sweet but they were idiots.

Mum came back one day to find us sprawled across the floor, reading through a few books and snacking quietly on the little fruit that was still in the house. As soon as she stepped into view, Naruto stiffened like a corpse, a look of dread coming over his features like none I'd seen before from him.

In the few days I spent with him, and a few days was all it took before I decided I was keeping him, I'd seen him brush off some questionable behaviour towards him. It wasn't so much that the adults that roamed Konoha were flat out mean or cruel to him, they simply thought that he was _someone else's problem_. Completely ignored, not worth their time and it was someone else's duty to put up with him. It was the children that were worse, picking up on the adults silent cues of ignorance and seeing a perfect target.

Still, he'd smiled and brushed it all off - bounced back, brighter than ever.

He thought that this moment was a deciding point though, meeting my mum. So far he'd been sliding by unnoticed and that had worked. If she said one bad word about him, he thought I'd drop him like a hot potato and leave him in the dust. I wondered quietly if this had happened before.

"So this's who's been eating my ramen," was all Chiho murmured, eyebrows arched in surprise and her hands laying on her hips as she inspected the books splayed about across the floor alongside the other bits and bobs we'd acquired. It was true, I wasn't really fond of the stuff, my heart truly lied in tempura so Naruto was more than welcome to the boxes of ramen that mum kept around the house when she felt particularly lazy. "Explains a bit."

And that was that.

She ruffled my hair, grabbed whatever she'd come home to get and simply left us to our business. There was no dramatics or yelling but it seemed to shake Naruto, I don't know whether it was the fear of a possible reaction or the actual lack of reaction which got to him more but he excused himself quietly to the bathroom for a minute.

Coming back, his smile perfectly intact, even if he sat a little closer to me like he was making sure that I wouldn't disappear. He was sweet. Right up until he tried to steal a piece of my fruit, which prompted a fight full of headlocks and hair pulling and relentless tickling.

You know, children things.

Mum would, of course, sit me down later after Naruto had left, I'd expected that. Nudging my dinner towards me as she picked at her own vegetables with clear disdain, we were quiet as the day seemed to wash over the two of us. Some part of me dreaded that mum would tell me not to see him again, part of me would like to say that I would've carried on seeing him regardless but, whether or not that part outweighed the respect and fear I had of disappointing my mum was another thing entirely.

"I see you've made a new friend," she picked up, almost awkwardly as she nudged and tried to move her broccoli around so it looked as if she'd eaten it. To be fair, neither of us paused as we continued eating, I just shrugged my shoulders as I chewed. Naruto brought out different reactions in everyone, sometimes I wondered what happened to the girl in my previous life, the fabled jinchūriki that had lived in the previous village I had been a part of - before I had become Yuna.

There was a pause, the two of us eating quietly. Sometimes I forgot how young mum was, having gotten pregnant at twenty - just six months into her time as a Jōnin. Whilst she might be this season hardass that people told me about, she was still a young woman and I dunno, sometimes- it's easy to forget that. There were wrinkles forming between her brow, furrowed as she tried to think of how to phrase whatever she was about to say.

There's a power in words, she told me once and only once, when I was learning to babble.

I think she'd be glad to know that I'd taken it to heart. Not that she'd known I was listening.

"What's he like?" Chiho settled for, grimacing as I reached over and poked the small branch of broccoli in her bowl.

"He's nice, he's kinda loud sometimes but he likes to read with me and we draw sometimes, we play ninja every now and again," Those times were fleeting, usually when I was in a dreamy sort of mood and fancied escaping from the maturity that I'd collected unwillingly. Chiho nodded along with my words, paying attention even as she grimaced, chucking the dreaded vegetable in her mouth. "Can we keep him?"

Mum choked on her piece of broccoli.

My eyes widened as I immediately patted her on the back like she did for me, though my movements were a little jerky and unsure. As soon as she'd swallowed down the dangerous pieces of veg that had tried to kill her though, mum burst out laughing. I didn't really understand why so I just sat there, dumbfounded as my mum was reduced to giggling like a teenage girl.

"Aren't you a little young for a boyfriend, Yuna?" Mum eventually chortled out and I could feel the heat rising in a thick wave from my neck until it swallowed my whole face.

" _Mean!_ " I hissed at her, pouting sulkily as she tried to calm herself down at bit and when she did, her smile turned almost… morose. It was only for a second though before she was smiling at me once more, fond and knowing.

Sometimes I think about my supposed-father, who he was and what kind of person he was like. Sometimes I wondered if I was anything like him in Chiho's eyes.

"Its nice that you're making friends," She reassured me, wiping the mirthful tears from her eyes. "I know you like to have time to yourself every now and again."

Mum worried, like all mums were supposed to - she wasn't overbearing about it, not really. I didn't have a lot of friends, I didn't act like four year olds were supposed to act so some of her worry was probably warranted in her eyes. All I seemed to do was train with her in the early hours of the morning when we had that time free, stay home and read or even go to the library to read. It wasn't much of a life.

Naruto was a break in the monotony and I suppose I came to rely on him for that.

"C'mon! Please? _Please please please?_ " Shuffling forwards on his knees, his hands clasped together as he pleaded - how he made his eyes so big and blue and adorable, I don't know. Genjutsu?

On the nicer days, Naruto tried to bargain for us to go and play outside. I tried to argue that reading outside was perfectly fine but he put his foot down, which was how I ended up being dragged - _yes,_ dragged, over towards a group of children messing about near the Academy. They looked around our ages with various hair colours and a ball being kicked between them.

Naruto refused to let go of my wrist until they stopped just short of them, he knew me well enough to know I'd try to back track. He hadn't even let me bring a book.

 _Rude_.

"Can we play with you guys?" Naruto asked brightly, a grin from ear to ear that just made him look a touch more mischievous than he usually did. I lingered by his side quietly, his hand still clasping my wrist.

The ringleader, a tall weedy looking kid with a crooked nose, sneered at him - "You're that kid that my parent says not to play with."

And just like that Naruto deflated whilst I just got ticked off.

I didn't have a temper like this usually, at the drop of a hat someone making me see red. I blamed it on this body but at the same time, I also knew that once someone was mine - and I was serious about keeping Naruto, I had a tendency to apply the logic ' _You're not allowed to insult him, I'm the only one allowed to insult him_ '. Childish maybe, but I still was technically only four years old.

"C'mon Naruto, we don't play with idiots anyways." I said loudly enough for them all to here, smiling brightly at them as they glared at me.

"Who're you calling an idiot?" The ringleader hissed, shaking his fist in my direction. Childhood drama much? It was times like this that I missed teenage years, not that they were much better but- anything was better than this.

"You deaf too?" I asked, ignoring Naruto's tugs to try and pull me away, to stop the obvious conflict brewing; taking an equal step forward when the other kid did.

To be fair, I didn't expect the other kid to take a swing at me. It was pretty sloppy too, it didn't take much to redirect the force of his fist and watch his weak stance crumble as he stumbled away from me but it just made him angrier. His cronies stood on the sideline with that stupid ball in hand and all I could think was, _Yuna, you're picking a fight with a five-year-old, six at best_. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

He made more sloppy punches and Naruto eventually let go of my wrist, watching from the sidelines a little way away from this snotty brats lackeys. They were chanting his name, cheering him on to beat me to a bloody pulp.

Eventually, I got sick of him, my body was rapidly tiring, my arms were beginning to ache and he just kept throwing punches. Ducking down, I swept his legs from under him, watching as he hit the floor. His lackeys stuttering into a silence that was broken by Naruto's loud cheers.

Won against a six-year-old, _nice going_. Of course, to anyone else, it looked like a little girl had put a bully in his place when it just felt like I had an unfair advantage - which I did. They weren't expect their boss to come out worse in this, against a small girl who looked like the wind might blow her over no less. "C'mon Naruto, we're going."

I didn't double check to see if he was following as I started walking away before the kid got back up, lips pursed and berating myself for letting my anger getting the best of me. Naruto's chatter catching up with me as he almost danced around, cooing and awwing at what had just happened.

I startled slightly, glancing over my shoulder as his warm hand slipped into mine.

"You okay Yuna?" He asked softly.

"I'm fine Naruto," And in some ways I was, this wasn't my first time, not my first name. Yuna was going to be different to _Rei_ or whoever else I was before. I was protective, I was angry and that was fine. I suppose it's jarring at times, the differences. It takes a lot longer to piece together the fact that this life and this body was now mine, the differences might be subtle but it was still me under all of that flesh. "You wanna get some dango or something?"

"Ramen?" He asked, eyes hopefully and big and blue and I still thought he used a genjutsu to make them look like that. This was exactly what got us into this situation in the first place.

I sighed - " _Only this once_."

Safe to say, it wasn't the only time.

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 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 2425**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 5282**


	3. Intro Arc: Copy Cats & Birthdays

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** Thank you guys so much for your reviews and your support! I know there are a couple of OC's running around other than Yuna and her mother, who are most prominent and that's probably going to be the extent of other OC's for now since I have a little trouble keeping track of characters sometimes. Just something for me to improve on though! Not gonna lie, the reason these chapters have been so quick to come out is because I've been procrastinating writing some essays by doing this.

I do hope you guys enjoy this because it's only going to go downhill from here! I don't own Naruto, I don't own anything in this story except for Yuna and even that's a bit of a stretch. I also want to apologise again for any spelling mistakes/grammar mistakes/stupid mistakes that I'm bound to make - I don't have a beta or anything like that, just a really poor attention span and spell check.

* * *

I should state that I've heard of many strong Shinobi in my time.

From various lands, various legends in their own right - I'd met some of the greats, whether they'd known they'd met me or not. I was just a passing figure in the crowd. And whilst I may have met some of the legends of tomorrow, there were some that still remained elusive names and statistics in the Bingo Books of which ever land I was born into that time.

Hatake Kakashi had been one of them, son of the White Fang of Konoha.

The chances of running into him were slim, he was one Jōnin in probably over a hundred within the village. It was a pretty large village as well, Konoha spanned over a wide region of land that was hemmed by the Hokage Rock. I didn't avidly seek him out nor did he appear within my thoughts often other than when there was a fleeting mention of him - usually grumblings on my mum's behalf at some of his antics when it came to his manners and such.

Our apartment building is located near the training fields, close enough that we had to give extra money to cover possible damages that might incur due to Shinobi training accidents. It's only logical for me to cut through the try and shave off time, in my need for a short cut - mum showed me the Memorial Stone.

"My sensei's name is engraved there," Chiho told me quietly as we stood there, a sombre silence and her amber eyes were cold as we stared at the large polished rock. The names sprawling on for longer than my stomach cared for and almost instinctively, I reached up to slip my hand in my mum's. A natural reaction, a daughter wanting comfort. She squeezed my hand lightly with a small but melancholy smile - "He was a good man, a good Shinobi. You would've liked him."

I made more of an effort to stop at the Memorial after that - sometimes I wandered past, the present more important than the past but occasionally I went to Yamanka's Flower Shop and ordered a bunch of flowers which my mum gave me money for. She didn't visit the memorial often, it saddened her, it was where all ninja ended up eventually - or that was the pessimistic outlook.

I met Kakashi there, and if I'm honest, I almost turned away despite the flowers in arms.

He was tall in the way all adults are tall to children, his back to me as he stared down at the rock - an orange book poking out of his back pocket whilst his hands were tucked into the front pockets. I felt like I was intruding and I was, hesitating from where I stood and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he knew I was there too. There was a reason, after all, he got into all the Bingo Books.

Tentatively taking a step forward, I couldn't afford to be late to meet with Naruto, when he was left to his own devices it only promised trouble. The last time I was half an hour late, I came to find that he'd graffitied across a few shops walls and was being pursued relentlessly by angry shop owners.

There was probably someone to blame for his increased mischievousness, that person was probably me, did I really care? Not so much.

"It's okay, don't mind me," Kakashi turned, glancing over his shoulder, his eye crinkling at the corner as he presumably smiled under the mask he was wearing. His headband lowered to mask the Sharingan eye that he was famed to possess. "I guess I am hogging the memorial a bit."

It was said so cheerily in such a morose setting that I couldn't help but eye him strangely. He seemed almost… amused? As I tiptoed around him to lay the flowers at the base of the memorial, head tipped in silent prayer for both my mother's sensei and the names that would no doubt be engraved on there in the upcoming months and years.

"Family?" Kakashi asked quietly, still lingering though he'd retrieved his orange book and had it opened in one hand.

"Sort of," I didn't really know how to explain it, maybe I respected the dead for actually staying dead. It was more than what I could say actually happened for me. Maybe it was a little morbid but sometimes it was refreshing to see that this fucked up cycle which I was locked in didn't actually have to happen to anyone else, or that's what it seemed like anyways. It wasn't like reincarnations went around spilling about their past lives and their knowledge of things to come or past.

Taking a step back, I turned with every intention of walking away but couldn't resist a dry remark as I caught sight of the cover of his little orange book.

"You know, only perverts read that kind of stuff." I'm pretty sure that four-year-olds shouldn't know anything about Icha Icha Paradise or anything within the pages of said book.

"Little girls shouldn't even know what a pervert is," He sounded exasperated like it was something that was said to him often enough - though that wasn't really surprising since not a lot of people tended to advertise in public that they were reading porn. "Really, what are they teaching this generation?"

I couldn't help but snigger as I walked away, intent on finding Naruto before he caused any destruction - well, without me at least.

It wasn't the last time I ran into Kakashi either, whilst I didn't always see him at the memorial, he was there often enough. Brief acknowledgements, a few snarky remarks made but that was pretty much it until my mum followed me down the shortcut one day - intent on getting through some errands that we'd left till the last minute.

"Kakashi," Chiho greeted the other Jōnin with a two fingered salute. "Long time no see."

"Chiho, what a pleasant surprise." The words were as dry as Suna's desert, Kakashi looked distinctly unimpressed, an obscured eyebrow arched as he stared at mum. There was history between the two of them apparently, not something I'd expected but then again - most Jōnin had to collaborate at some point or another. Especially on higher ranked missions.

"Miss me?"

"Like a rash." His eyes sliding over to see me tucked very neatly against my mum's leg with a casual wave of acknowledgement not dissimilar to the two fingered salute mum had given him seconds ago. He sighed, it was a tired kind of sigh, exasperated even. "The resemblance is uncanny."

Mum's eyes seemed to light up at that, "So you've met Yuna before, huh?"

"Not formally but I have a feeling that you're-

"Yuna, this is Kakashi Hatake, we worked together in ANBU," That made- say what now? That made me stare sharply at my mum who was pretending not to take any notice of me. Kakashi was infinitely amused. "Kakashi, this is my daughter Yuna."

ANBU? ANBU?

How old had mum been when she even -? What the -? I hadn't even seen the tattoo! Her tendency to stay away from anything sleeveless came to mind, everything, from sleepwear to her usual uniform. She had told me that she had only been Jōnin six months before I made my grand appearance - she had been twenty…

Honest to god, they were letting teenagers run around with weapons and teaching children how to use them from the age of five- should I really be surprised anymore?

"Nice to meet your, formally, Yuna," Kakashi was a good sport and played along, he probably knew what mum was like if she didn't get her way.

I smiled at him but out of the corner of my mouth I muttered to my mum - "He reads Icha Icha like Kosuke."

Kosuke, mum's old Genin Teammate that insisted I called him Uncle. This little tidbit of information seemed to tickle Chiho since she burst out laughing and under her loud laughter, I swore I could've heard Kakashi groaning to himself - "It's like there's two of them." before vanishing completely. It took a while for mum to calm down after that but every now and then when we were in the market grabbing things, she'd giggle to herself.

The errands mum needed to complete meant picking up a lot of stuff, from food to new clothing since some of mum's shirts and pants looked like they went through a shredder from one of her last missions. Something about an evil cat? Still, I couldn't help but stare in awe as we passed the Weapons shop on the way back, a number of elegant katana's mounted on the back wall, a few tantō. To be honest, I was more interested in the explosive tags, the smoke pellets and all of that sort of range.

A hand clapped me on the shoulder, mum leaning over my shoulder to see what I was staring at so intensely.

"See something you like Yuna?" Chiho asked with a smile, a knowing look but I could barely look away from all of the possibilities laid before me. I'd had a lot of years to work out what I liked to use in battle, katanas? Not really my sort of thing, kenjutsu just wasn't my forte and hadn't been no matter what name/body I'd had. Things like ninjutsu and genjutsu sort of depended on who I was at the time, some leant more in some directions than others, chakra reserves small or large, all that stuff.

Explosions had been a big thing for me in the past - three? Maybe four lifetimes.

There was something innately satisfying watching your work blow up in your face, exactly how you wanted it to. I wasn't exactly a pyromaniac but I could admit that there was the thrill of it, the sudden surge of adrenaline.

"Those." I pointed gleefully at the tags and the smoke pellets. Which made both mum and the vendor blink, I mean, adorable (and I am damn adorable, thank you very much) little girl with her eye on some explosives? I could see the word disaster written in my mum's head before she even managed to get her jaw working.

"You… want the smoke pellets?" I think she was hoping for the lesser of two evils.

"And the tags."

…

Chiho sighed, rolling her eyes but it was fond, as fond as you could be with the prospect of your daughter being an explosive-happy nut case. "...You can't just want to play with kunai like every other brat, can you?"

Safe to say, I got both the pellets and the tags.

* * *

Training was upped at least three levels, it probably had something to do with the papers for the Academy nudged under my nose one night at dinner. Not that I didn't know it wasn't coming. unlike Civilian schools which had a waiting list depending on the prestige of it, it's fairly easy to have a child accepted into the Shinobi Academy - the need for that workforce was forever prevalent so they weren't going to pass up any applications. No matter how late they were. As long as they were in at least three days before classes started, you were in.

"The Academy may teach you some stuff but, some things you have to prepare for yourself," Chiho told me calmly as we stretched and cooled down after a long four-hour session. I was sweating in places I didn't like to think sweated and she made me do stances with a flexibility that I didn't know I had. It was safe to say, I was absolutely wiped out. "They can give you the basics but it's up to you to make sure that you survive."

Mum grew up in a war zone, and from what I gathered, was drafted pretty young into the ranks - her outlook in the Academy might be a little dated and a little jaded but she just wanted me safe.

"You've got good taijutsu down, your aim is improving every day, your chakra control is getting there - " Mum started listing off as she balanced on one leg, bringing the other up so it almost seemed like she was doing the splits vertically- holding it steady in place without her balance wavering whatsoever. "You start slacking off and all that will slide."

"I know, I know." I huffed, sulkily because it was something I knew and didn't like having it repeated to me. Still, it just reminded me of how important all of this was. Because as far away as a time where mum might not be able to help me train may seem, I knew personally how quickly time seems to fly by.

Case and point with my fifth birthday.

It was only a small occasion, Naruto, mum and my mums old Genin teammates which insisted I called the Uncles Kosuke and Sasaki. Naruto seemed more excited about it then I was which only made mum up the ante with all the birthday stuff- my favourite breakfast, my favourite lunch and everyone coming over for dinner. A futon laid out for Naruto to stay the night.

"Happy birthday Yuna," Kosuke gave his belated greetings, his own little orange book nowhere in sight since he had public decency unlike Kakashi Hatake, or so it seemed. Handing over a medium sized brown box which rattled and made him look a bit anxious when I did shake it.

A roll of ninja wire, some more smoke pellets, a few more tags and a book on creating my own seals - a very rudimentary book since fūinjutsu is so difficult to master and just a pain the arse to learn. Still, it made me grin from ear to ear, giving him my thanks.

It seemed like word had got out about my new interest in explosives since Sasaki gifted me with a wad of trick tags, look exactly like explosive tags, from smell to touch, but they were actually duds. Enough to cause a little chaos. He handed them to me with a wary look, amused but infinitely wary, something that he told me came with spending a few years on Kosuke and my mum's team.

"They kept me on my toes, hopefully, you'll do the same for your teammates." He said, ruffling my hair as he walked away to grab a few rice balls that were left over. Sasaki was 'The Sane One' and it was always said with quotation marks as if this sanity was dubious.

It really wasn't by comparison to my mum and Kosuke.

"C'mon Yuna! Open my gift!" Naruto insisted, eagerly pushing the mishmash of wrapped paper towards me, bouncing in his seat until mum placed a hand on his head - as if to keep him from flying out of his seat. "Open it, open it, openitopenitopenit-"

"Okay!" Naruto was a force to be reckoned with, so carefully I unwrapped the present- taking my sweet time because it was funny to see him get frustrated that I wasn't going fast enough for his liking.

It was no secret that Naruto wasn't rolling around in money, the orphanage barely had enough funds as it was and I only knew that because mum personally looked into it after Naruto wormed his way into our home. I didn't expect much but knew I would be pleased with whatever he got me because Naruto just wanted to make me happy, wanted to make everyone happy. A people pleaser with a mischievous smile and his heart in the right place.

Inside was a small non-reflective locket, simple, very small and not what I was expecting. He seemed to be on the edge of his seat, biting his lip and glancing between me and the locket anxiously. When I undid the clasp, which was sturdy, made so it can't fly open at a moments notice - I couldn't help laughing, my eyes watering a little.

There was a picture of my mum and me on one side, the two of us grinning, mid-two fingered salute at the camera, and on the other was one of me and Naruto.

"Yuna? Yuna? I'm sorry!" Naruto started babbling, a little confused why I was staring at it for so long, glancing between me and my mum now- who I assume gave him the idea for this, maybe even some money.

"Thank you," I murmur quietly, instantly looping it around my neck with a silent vow to never take it off - unless it became a health risk or something. Lunging over the table so I could wrap my arms around him, making a good attempt to hug the stuffings out of him. "I'm gonna buy you Ramen for weeks for this."

"Even shrimp Ramen?" Ugh.

"Even shrimp." I conceded.

* * *

 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 2806**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 8088**


	4. Intro Arc: Get Schooled

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** Thank you once again for all your reviews and support! I swear to god that I'm trying not to rush it because I think I have a tendency to do that, especially since I'm impatient to get to the things that I have planned - but I'm trying to take it slow! Let me know what you think about this chapter, I know Ino was sort of taken of out of this part but she will emerge later on I swear.

And this is just your quick reminder that I don't own Naruto, I don't own anything in this story except for Yuna and even that's a bit of a stretch. I also want to apologise again for any spelling mistakes/grammar mistakes/stupid mistakes that I'm bound to make - I don't have a beta or anything like that, just a really poor attention span and spell check. I also hope you guys have had a great easter/bank holiday or whatever! Also, please let me know if you have any recommendations about SI/OC fanfictions because I'm gagging for some knew stories to sink my teeth into! Oh, another thing! I have a poll up on my profile on what Genin team you think Yuna should be assigned to when it comes to that, I have some ideas but I want your opinion on it!

* * *

"Would you be willing to release Naruto into my care?" Chiho asked her superior, unwavering, arms folded on the table as she stared across at the older man whilst he puffed his pipe. He looked solemn, the wrinkles on his face deepening and the shadows of time cast across his face - staring at back at a woman who had grown a lot since she first started out in this line of work.

Hiruzen wouldn't be arrogant enough to claim that he remembered all of his village with painstaking clarity, he was growing old, he was only human. Chiho had been young when she'd been accepted into ANBU, it tended to stick in his mind - the young people so ready to go to war. She'd lost her family in the Kyuubi attack, not to mention her sense yet here she was, asking to adopt him into her small family.

Part of him so badly wanted to say yes, to allow Naruto that taste of happiness and love which he desperately deserved - the love which Minato and Kushina could have given him once upon a time but the Council would be in upheaval at the idea that any individual held sway over their beloved jinchuuriki. Everyone was treated with suspicion when it came to Naruto's life, everything dissected in his day to day life. The idea that someone would send across spies to influence and young and impressionable boy who had no idea how powerful he could truly be, it had been discussed many times before.

So with that sad, regretful sigh - "I'm afraid not, Chiho," Hiruzen hated the way she pursed her lips, looking like she'd bitten a lemon. Fingertips curling until they were balled into fists and he could practically read her mind, failure, failure. "I am sorry."

He'd caught wind of Naruto's new friends a week into their relationship when he'd babbled and talked all about them for two hours straight when he next saw the boy - barely paying attention to the ramen laid in front of him. A young girl that had been kind to him, offered him food, talked to him. He'd allowed it to continue, not without keeping a very close eye on it, he did have his responsibilities after all. Kaneko Yuna was average though, a five-year-old girl starting the Academy this year with Naruto, holding a lot of promise in the future just like many students.

He'd underestimated how attached they all were to one another until Naruto's application for the Academy was accepted; his residency in the Orphanage becoming null and void now that he was technically supposed to be considered a step away from being an adult. A shinobi in training. It was the excuse the woman gave him who ran the Orphanage.

A day after Naruto was taken from the Orphanage, the application to adopt him made it's way to his desk - which prompted this personal visit.

A personal visit to deliver the news that he couldn't grant the adoption, that Naruto was too valuable in the eyes of the Council to allow any leeway for any form of manipulation - not that Hiruzen believed that she was capable but more to account for the what if's that his Council proposed to him. For the greater good of Konoha, they'd explained to him and made it very difficult to argue against.

"What will happen to him?" Chiho asked quietly, eyes flicking between the Hokage and a particular knot on her table - the sinking stone in her stomach of guilt. Yuna and Naruto had no idea of her request, it had been quietly submitted when she'd overheard Naruto talking about how he was leaving the Orphanage. She wasn't the most maternal woman, she was surprised herself at how well Yuna had turned out despite her somewhat relaxed approach to parenting but it tugged at her heartstrings.

She wanted Naruto to have a home to come to that he'd be wanted, welcomed and loved in.

"He will be given an apartment, an allowance, he'll have check-ins weekly with myself," Hiruzen leaned back as he listed all the precautions he'd take with the boy - not that he liked what it's come to. Neither did Chiho if the way her jaw clenched and unclenched said anything. "He will be taken care of, Chiho. That I can promise you."

Biting the tip of her tongue, hands raking through her hair as she tried to shake off the frustration, trying to shake off the childish need to point out how unfair this was for him. She paused though, the corners of her lips curving ever so slightly.

"Does it matter where the apartment is that he'll be placed into?" She asked, an eyebrow raised and her lip curling into a smirk.

Hiruzen smiled, sliding his pipe out of his pocket and placing it between his lips. "Not at all, besides, I hear there are a few vacancies in the buildings around here."

* * *

The Academy is different in different places, of course, different countries teach kids different things - the countries needs influencing what teachers feed their young and impressionable students. Konoha was filled to the brim with love for their own country, an admiration for teamwork - the will of fire.

It was such a cliche thrown around, shoved down our throats and that was just on the first day of being there.

In some way it was daunting, to face an entire class of children which I didn't know and be expected to make the connections that would take me through to the next part of my life. A little heavy but it's not untrue. Two other students in here would make my Genin team - and god knows where that'd take me. I'd had some disaster teams in my life, I'd also seen mums team because no matter what they all say, they were a disaster. Like a natural disaster.

Naruto's hand curled in mine as we waited outside the building, we were a bit early because someone was extremely excited to begin his first steps to becoming Hokage. I couldn't really say no to him either, mostly because mum let him into our house and I couldn't climb out of the window in time.

"This'll be so cool!" Naruto cheered, eyes flickering around and his grin seemed to be tattooed. "Just think Yuna, we'll become awesome ninjas, we'll be supersupersuper strong!"

"We'll have to do tests and learn facts!" I chipped in, a bit too gleeful in watching Naruto's grin crumble a little.

"Aw! No way!" He grumbled, sinking into a sulk until I knocked shoulders with him - he still seemed kind of put out that it wouldn't all be physical work. It didn't surprise me, whilst left in the care of the orphanage he had little support in things such as learning to read or write - that wasn't really the fault of the workers there. They were so understaffed with more children than what they could probably deal with, there was very little time for one-to-one teaching.

Sasaki took Naruto under his wing though, teaching him the basics and asking him to come back every once in awhile for a refresher. He was a little embarrassed about it up until I started helping out in my own way - reading along with him or correcting him every now and then, explaining why it was written this way instead of that way.

"You okay?" Blinking, I felt Naruto tug my hand once again, easily managing a smile in his direction.

"Yeah, just nervous, don't know anyone really." I was an unsociable child okay? Naruto was about the limit which I could handle and my temper was rapidly dwindling outside of his cheery disposition. So those two other Genin that would be assigned to my team? Well, it wasn't looking good already. Granted there was a lot of time between now and graduation, I couldn't afford to think so far ahead at this point when I was just settling down.

Maybe in a year or two I'd gain a bit of momentum.

We wandered around the streets closest to the Academy, chatting every now and again but it was pretty obvious we both had things on our minds. Naruto, probably daydreaming about becoming Hokage or the awesome ninja that he'd become - whilst I just wanted it to start, to be over and done with, to get the first day out of the way.

"C'mon, let's go and grab some seats," Naruto eventually decided for us, dragging me without mercy and I don't know whose hand was clammy but I think the nerves were getting to the both of us. Weaving through people in the streets, we weren't the first to arrive but we weren't the last either. There were enough students already scattered throughout the seats that I felt nervous walking in but few enough that meant Naruto and I could sit next to one another.

Our hands loosening from the tight grip which they'd found themselves into.

No matter how many times, how many Academies I've walked through - how different they all are. Whether it be from the cultural standpoint, politics influence, how many students, whatever, all Academies gave me that sense of nostalgia that I couldn't quite place my finger on. You'd think I'd be drowning in nostalgia with how many lives I'd lived or names I've taken but it wasn't always the case. Naruto's sharp finger prodding me in the ribcage drawing me from whatever daze I'd apparently slipped into, instinctively wriggling away from him and rubbing at my ribs with a low whine.

" _Mean._ " I hissed at him, which he rolled his eyes at though his grin never budged.

"You weren't listening!" He insisted, which was very true, not the point. "I said that Oji-san is showing me my new place later on today."

That made me blink.

I wasn't happy with the situation, not one bit. I'd nagged and I'd whined at mum but she wouldn't say anything on the topic, she'd smile and say something trite like - ' _Everything will work out in the end, Yuna, no need to stress_ '. No need to stress? _No need to stress?_ They were sending a five-year-old boy to live on his own, no carer, no parents, nothing. This was _Naruto_ , who refused to eat vegetables unless it was the **last** option and I mean the _very_ last option, who tried to argue that ramen fulfilled the basic food groups. I didn't need to go on, do I?

"You know you're always welcome to stay with us," I put out there needlessly because it took a while but it was drilled into Naruto's head by now, it took both me and mum to do it but he knew. His futon was always made up and he always had a spare set of clothes and pyjamas, he even had his own drawer in my dresser. He refused to admit that he teared up at that. "mum'd kill you if you stopped coming round."

It wasn't far from the truth either, both of us shuddering at the thought.

"I know, I know," Naruto waved all my concerns away as if they were flies to be swatted like nothing could keep him down. "Like I'd miss your mums cooking either-"

"Or the fact she lets you eat all her ramen." I cut in with a pointed look because I knew him, I knew about their pact, their little stash.

"That too," He admitted without a shred of shame if anything his grin simply grew. _Idiot_ , I thought fondly, knocking shoulders with him whilst it was my turn to roll my eyes. "but Oji-san says that I'll like my new place, says it's _really_ close by."

Here's hoping, I hadn't seen Naruto's room back when he was in the orphanage - it was one of those things that were off limits, something he was a little embarrassed about so I left it well alone. I still had my reservations about Naruto living alone, about any child our age living alone. Despite liking solitude, I'd come to depend on Naruto to break it, to beat it black and blue with a sledgehammer. I didn't know what I'd do without his constant yammering anymore.

Knocking my shoulders, Naruto smiled knowingly as I blinked slowly at him again, realising that I'd been daydreaming once more - he knew though. Squeezing my hand once more and I realised we hadn't let go for most of the morning.

The teacher walked in, our fellow classmates trickled in slowly enough and began to fill the seats.

Only then did we let go.

Classes were boring as most classes were, I paid attention, was an average student - I answered questions when called upon, was caught talking in class one time or another. There was nothing about my performance which screamed prodigy or genius unlike some others in our class. To name a few, Shikamaru Nara and Sasuke Uchiha.

One thing I detested, absolutely loathed about the Academy though: Kunoichi Classes.

It wasn't so much as a class per say since it was after official Academy hours once a week, it wasn't exactly mandatory but at the same time, it was heavily looked down upon if a Kunoichi failed to attend these so called 'classes'. It also left me to fend for myself, Naruto grinning and running off, probably to try and swindle another ramen out of some unsuspecting adult or even go back to mine and wait until I was released from this nightmare.

I understand that women and men offered different things to the world, really, I did.

I just didn't see the point of flower arranging, the language of flowers and all that.

"Forehead, forehead, forehead," The not-so-quiet chant came from the other end of the field where Ami and her gaggle were preying on their latest victim, some civilian born girl with pink hair. Apparently, they didn't see the point in the language of flowers either and had taken up trying to pick off the weak, though technically that was supposed to be the enemies of Konoha's job. "Aw look! She's crying!"

Since the class was all girls, scenes like this tended to happen more often than not under Suzume-sensei's nose. Girls are cruel, they know exactly where to hit whether it be physical or emotions and I didn't wanna paint Ami as that one-dimensional bullying brat…

But so far, she hadn't given me any reason to see her as otherwise.

The insults were juvenile and designed to hurt, to target the individuals weakest points. Where they were insecure and vulnerable - part of me commended Ami for having such an eye and thought she'd probably make an excellent interrogator if she honed that sort of skill. Not in such a brutal manner and not targeting five-year-old little girls with a gaggle of friends.

"Don't you have something better to do?" I asked, stood behind them with my hands on my hips, something which mum did a lot of the time. I picked up a lot of things from her, something I noticed more as years went on.

Ami and her gaggle turned around, noses upturned and sneers upon their features whilst the civilian girl tried to tuck herself further into a ball. As if she could make herself so small that she'd disappear. In some way, she looked similar to how Naruto did when I first met him.

I'm making it a habit of picking up strays, I thought, a little horrified actually by the realisation.

"Look, it's one freak sticking up for another," Ami chortled and her little gang cackled along as if she'd told them the best joke in her life. It was easier to go along with a bully rather than be on the other side of one, it's hard standing up to someone, even more so if they're a friend. Ami hopped onto the bandwagon of her new favourite word, jabbing a finger in my direction - "Freaky friends."

"Better freaky than boring," I commented, unphased completely which seemed to have Ami at a loss. Not reacting to her words seemed to take away all of the fun for her. I had an unfair advantage, of course, I'd heard a lot of insults in my life, as a child and adult. I had to say though, I'd heard better insults from children younger than Ami.

"I'm not boring, you're weird," She hissed, emphasising it as if I didn't understand the insult as if she'd see the moment I realise that I'm being insulted and was hoping that I'd break down in tears. She took a step closer, her finger jabbing me in the chest as she towered over me by a good few inches. Every word was punctuated with a jab. "Weird. Weird. Weird."

"Thank you," I told her, watching her turn beet red before flouncing away, her groupies following after her but not without glancing over their shoulders with hushed whispers. The civilian girl was still crying but it wasn't sobbing, simply trying to wipe away the silent tears that seemed to stream down her flushed cheeks, still curled up protectively."You okay?"

Stupid question, Yuna, of course she's not okay.

Plopping down in front of her, I smiled, small and tentative and not exactly comforting. I wasn't exactly a comforting person. I could do protective, I could give a person honesty but I wasn't exactly a dab hand at the 'comforting' arts. I blamed it on mum, she wasn't exactly great at it either- it made us both feel a bit awkward. "Don't listen to what she says, she's an idiot."

The civilian girl stares at her, the tears haven't stopped and her green eyes are peeking over her knees as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Seriously, your forehead isn't big at all, Ami's blind," I continued, shrugging my shoulders as I began to pluck blades of grass nervously. I hadn't had to speak to someone for a long stretch outside of Naruto, mum and other honorary family members in such a long time that my tongue felt almost clumsy as I tried. My smile growing as her tears seemed to dry up, slowly but surely, her sniffling quieting. "I'm Yuna."

"Sakura." She said quietly, Sakura, the named suited her - pink hair, duh. "Thank you."

"Eh, don't sweat it, I don't like bullies," I really didn't, I had a strong distaste for them, more so due to Naruto's influence than anything else really. My protectiveness over him knew no bounds which amused my family more than I thought it should, teasing jabs about boyfriends and romance being tossed about which only made me cringe. Naruto was the annoying younger brother she hadn't known she'd wanted. To think of him as anything else was disgusting. Leaning forwards I smiled at Sakura, trying to emulate that easy going grin that Naruto had going for him - "She ever gives you a problem, come to me."

I didn't expect her to take that as an invitation to come and sit with us, surprised when Sakura slid into the seat next to me the next day in classes. Wedged between her and Naruto. I didn't complain though, Sakura was a sweet girl, quiet and shy, a little nervous and it took her a long time to warm up to Naruto if only to adapt to his loud and brash manner.

Naruto's cheeks always seemed to turn a bright pink as well when she spoke to him - something I teased him about relentlessly.

And I could tease him about it for ages since Naruto was _technically_ living with us.

He hadn't been kidding when he'd said the Hokage was putting him to live close to us, the flat above us had belonged to a young couple but with three kids - they'd decided to branch out for a bigger space. The place had been empty for nearly a year until now. Admittedly, I'd been completely thrown off when Naruto guided us up the winding stairs into his new apartment, my arm linked with his and mum's hand on his shoulder. The Hokage still stood there with his pipe dangling from his lips as he watched Naruto fondly whilst the brat gave us a tour of his new living space.

I thought I was imagining things when mum seemed to slip a little orange book to the Hokage.

That thought quickly left as I focused on Naruto's jabbering how he now has his own bedroom and how I could sleep over at his now. The little orange book was long forgotten and I wouldn't question it until later on at night when I was left to my own thoughts, laid on a futon in Naruto's new bedroom. Mum asleep on the small sofa in the living room.

"Did mum pay off the Hokage?" I asked quietly and incredulously, only to be met with Naruto's loud snores.

* * *

 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 3487**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 12,218**


	5. Intro Arc: Too Much Dango

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** Over a hundred follows and nearly a hundred favourites! Thank you guys so much! Seriously I cannot explain how amazing this is to me.

One thing to reference is that Yuna's maturity fluctuates between what it is, due to her actual age, and what it should be, her current bodies age. This is more to do with the bodies conflict of trying to deal with too much at once, she can easily slip into being a four-year-old and acting like one; at the same time, her brain doesn't shut off nor does she stop remembering her previous lives etc.

Fun fact: The word dango is used twenty times in this chapter. So much love for the dango.

Also this chapter refers to Yuna's knowledge from past lives - there's one key flaw to it, it's heavily influenced by wherever or whenever she got the information from. Not all of it is accurate and she does have some false assumptions which will be made clearer. A few things which Yuna doesn't know: is that she doesn't know who Naruto's parents are, she doesn't know the real reason behind the Uchiha Massacre. There's only so much she can glean from past lives, all of which have never been directly involved in this generation at Konoha.

Quick reminder: I don't own Naruto, I don't own anything in this story except for Yuna and even that's a bit of a stretch. I also want to apologise for any spelling mistakes/grammar mistakes/stupid mistakes that I'm bound to make - I don't have a beta or anything like that, just a really poor attention span and spell check.

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"What's your opinion on Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked me quietly one day.

At that point, we'd been going to the Academy for a couple of months - slowly improving and building upon the skills we'd need for further down the line in this career we'd chosen. The minor improvements made a difference though, every little bit counted I was quickly reminded. Mum beaming with pride over the littlest thing, always ready to hear how our days went learning, nostalgic as she listened to me, Naruto or Sakura talk about how we spent our day.

I think she missed when things were a little easier and I knew exactly how she felt at times.

With time spent at the Academy came changes that weren't exactly to do with our skills- Naruto's focus was improving, even if it was moving at a snail's pace. I think if Sakura wasn't there to jab him back into line, he'd have run riot. Sakura herself was growing more confident, slowly but surely, you couldn't rush these things I suppose. When she was with either me or Naruto, she was as free as a bird - outside of her comfort zone though she slipped back into her shell a little.

Mum loved Sakura, thought she was absolutely adorable.

I think my tendency to adopt people was actually a genetic trait.

Despite claiming she wasn't a maternal person, Chiho now had three little ducklings fumbling and following her around on the odd occasion. Much to her teammate's intense amusement, Sasaki and Kosuke thought it was absolutely hilarious since mum had sworn off the idea of children a long time ago.

"And then I get lumped with you three." Chiho had grizzled half-heartedly, Naruto sticking his tongue out at her childishly and mum just had to prove her maturity by returning the gesture.

I hadn't been sure how to take to Sakura at first, there's a distinct difference to having a friend who is female than… well, _Naruto_. It took us a while to fumble around and find out how we clicked best, we're just kids after all. We fought, as friends do, even Naruto and I fought on occasion. Still, Sakura was a nice addition to our little gang, as mum took to calling us.

The three of us stuck together both inside and out of the Academy, mum treating us to Ichiraku's or even the small dango stall every now and again. Ami kept her distance now that it was a numbers game. It wasn't long until Sakura grabbed both myself and Naruto by the wrists and forcefully dragged us back to her house to meet her parents.

Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno were retired Shinobi, apparently, they'd hung up their hitaites just after breaking Chunin rank thanks to a little bundle of surprise. Kizashi had enough terrible jokes up his sleeve to slay an army, much to Sakura's embarrassment. The constant ribbing had Sakura blushing hard enough that it was difficult to tell where her hair ended and her face began. Balancing out her father, Mebuki was the more serious of the two - a little too serious at times but they complemented each other well.

I'll admit, I wasn't sure about them at first - especially with the split second of hesitation when they opened the door to us.

More pointedly, at Naruto.

Of course, that second was over when Sakura cheerily flew at us with a blinding grin. Her happiness came first to whatever prejudice they held apparently as they opened their door and let us into their home. Quietly watching over us as we messed around until they were satisfied with what they found.

Mom was the one to point out eventually that we'd found the 'Sasaki' of our group. The sane one, though it was always said as if their sanity was dubious - I suppose it really wasn't when you tried to compare Sakura to me and Naruto. Coming from a civilian family, a normal family at that, she seemed more grounded than both of us combined. Which was why I was a little surprised with her affections for our so called class prodigy, who I hadn't spoken to and being honest, I had no plans to.

"He's alright, I guess," Wrinkling my nose, I was careful with my words. "Why? What's your opinion of him?"

Her eyes widened, her head snapping up to look at him - resembling a startled deer.

Despite Ami's taunts, we'd been adamant that Sakura shouldn't hide because of some idiots stupid and asinine taunts. Mebuki had only been too happy to provide a few adorable clips and even one or two headbands for Sakura to pull her hair away from her face. I mean, it only prompted mum to gush about how adorable she was more than usual but - the price of beauty I suppose.

"I don't know, all the other girls seem to like him." Sakura seemed reluctant to admit that.

And that was true, Sasuke Uchiha had a devout group of followers that seemed to stalk his every movement outside of the classroom when it came to Academy hours. At lunch, the gaggle of girls could often be seen watching him like hawks from a safe distance.

"Do you like him?" I asked though it felt like redundant statement as the blush seemed to flourish across Sakura's cheeks.

"Maybe a little." Sakura was even more reluctant to let that slip, like pulling teeth.

"If you start acting like Ami around him though,"Both of us couldn't hold back the involuntary grimace at the name- a small smile twisting my lips. "I'll stop talking to you."

I felt really really mean to say something like, especially so casually. It was, of course, an empty threat. Mum would murder me if Sakura and I ever stopped talking. Said empty threat still made Sakura's eyes widen, shaking her head until it was simply a blur of pink. "'Course I won't!"

And that was that.

Naruto came back over to us, chatting loudly about something or other and Sakura's crush was quickly dropped. More so to save Naruto's feelings since I was pretty sure he had his own crush on Sakura. I thought both of them were pretty damn adorable for it too, which I told mum.

Mum found it hilarious.

Hand slapping, table rattling, gut wrenching laughter kind of hilarious - in fact, I think she almost choked on another piece of broccoli.

"What about you, Yuna-chan?" Chiho crooned, fluttering her eyelashes obnoxiously as she wiggled her fingers in my direction. "Nobody you have a little crush on?"

Who was the adult in this situation? Sometimes, I think the hardass that everyone made my mum out to be was nothing more than a myth - this supposed fierce and harsh Shinobi who battled against the odds and had war stories about her. She acted closer to my age than I did.

Still, her teasing question made me blink.

"But they're all idiots." I protested.

It just set her off laughing once again.

Romance was not on the agenda, not for another ten years… _at least_.

"Sometimes I think you're a little too much like me." Chiho said, voice wavering with laughter as she wiped away tear of mirth, trying to stifle her giggles.

It wasn't something I hadn't heard before. We looked very similar without me being considered a miniature version of her - the same dark hair, cutting high cheekbones. She'd already apologised if I inherited her height, since she only stood at 5"1' without her mandatory heels. Of course, there were hints of the man behind the other fifty percent of my genetics- most obviously being my eyes, they were his eyes mum told me, looking very wistful whilst she told me.

Mum eventually managed to collect herself, trying to look serious as she jabbed a finger in my direction - "does this mean I can expect no boyfriends to distract you from your training?"

"Yes ma'am." I was prompt to reply, giving her a lazy two fingered salute.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that mum upped our training once again now that we were in the Academy. No rest for the wicked. I was glad that at least this time I wasn't the only person to be tortured so ruthlessly. Naruto only lived in the flat above us now, he had no way to escape.

If I was going down, he was going down with me.

Sure, he tried to escape when mum barged into his flat at the ass crack of dawn but it was useless. It was just better to go along with whatever strange and unusual punishments she came up with. Most of the time we started with stretches then moving onto a quick spar between me and Naruto that was strictly taijutsu, a small amount of time spent on our arsenals of weapons and then ending with some chakra control exercises.

That was… a basic overview. Mum didn't really have a strict schedule, she trained us however she wanted to with forever changing levels of ferocity. You never know what will hit you, expect the unexpected! That had been drilled into us right from the very start.

It got to a point though that it became pretty obvious that mum was holding back on training as months went on.

More so when it came to Naruto than it came to me.

The pressure was mounting despite the little time we'd spent at the Academy - for Naruto. His assignments were sometimes more difficult than the rest of the class, the teachers seemed to have higher expectations of him than what they should have of someone our age. It frustrated me to no end and prompted many a rant, most of which Naruto sat there and dutifully nodded to.

It took a visit from the Hokage for things to be a little clearer, his usual weekly visit to Naruto, as promised.

The knock on the door wasn't exactly necessary but I was still nudged to answer it, left to look up at the man who ran our village. The famous Professor, the man who taught the Sannin, even if he did look a little ridiculous in his standard formal Hokage robes that he seemed to be fond of. He was also fond of jasmine tea, jumping at the opportunity to have a cup that mum offered.

"I'm glad to hear that both Yuna-chan and Naruto-kun are settling well into the Academy," The Hokage commented whilst I was still in hearing range, I wasn't deluded in thinking that they didn't notice my presence nearby.

Mum was always wary of what was said in front of me, I had a terrible habit of regurgitating whatever was said - when it was useful to me of course.

The Hokage was an old man, stuck in a position which he'd already tried to wash his hands of once before - only stepping back in with the death of the Fourth Hokage. His eyes reflected his age, the horrors he'd seen and the trials which he'd had to face whilst protecting the village. His eyes were almost mirrored images of mine on my worst days.

Puffing his pipe, his words were slow and deliberate. They were hard to catch as I headed for the door, intent on finding either Naruto or Sakura to bug. "I'm afraid that the Council are pushing for an early graduation though."

The Council were a pain in the ass from what I'd heard, mum cussed them out to the moon and back a few months ago over some paperwork she'd apparently submitted and had rejected. Holding the safety of Konoha close to their hearts, their methods were sometimes questionable - or at least that was what Sasaki told me when I asked him ever so nicely.

Whether they were pushing for an early graduation because Naruto was a jinchuriki, or due to something else entirely was another question. I didn't like not having answers. Still, the idea of opposing the Council seemed brilliant if it meant being able to swaddle Naruto up in a blanket and taking him far far away from their greedy little hands.

Like hell would he be used as a weapon at their disposal.

I'd seen how jinchuriki had been used before.

"Yuna? Do you have a few of my kunai?" Naruto asked as I walked through the door to his apartment - the place in disarray now that the Hokage had left his humble abode and entered mine instead. The cupboard doors hanging open, drawers pulled out and Naruto's head was stuck within a large chest, rummaging around noisily for his lost belongings.

"You lent them to Sakura so she could practise her aim," I promptly reminded him, tidying up little by little. Naruto's head coming into view, his hair messier - almost as if he'd been struck by lightning, gnawing his lip as he tried to remember.

"Did I?" He mumbled, more to himself I think.

"Mhm, she said she'd give you them back tomorrow when we meet up before class," I didn't mention they were my kunai to begin with, it didn't really matter. What was mine was his at this point. And Sakura's by the looks of it. Her aim was abysmal so she needed all the practise she could get right now, not that I told her in as many words.

Naruto perked up at that, slamming the chest shut with more enthusiasm than he needed - "Oh yeah!"

He was probably only happy because we were meeting near the ramen stand.

"We can go to Ichiraku's too!"

Called it.

"We're _not_ having ramen from breakfast," I shot him down firmly, jumping up onto the counter, using an open drawer as a step since I was still a touch shorter than everyone else. I tolerated the stuff, it was okay, not my favourite. I wasn't about to get dragged there all the time though.

Cue the big blue eyes, the heartbroken expression, by the looks of it, you would think that I kicked a puppy in front of him and laughed. It was heart-wrenching but I wasn't going to fall for it. "I'm not going to the Academy on a full stomach of ramen."

"It's a perfectly good breakfast!" Naruto tried to argue, putting his hands on his hips.

"Ichiraku's doesn't even _open_ till lunch." I told him, smiling happily as I swung my legs, cheery because I won.

It didn't stop Naruto though it didn't take a second for him to regroup, rethink a different strategy because like hell he wasn't getting ramen tomorrow. His grin was distinctly smug as he seemed to have a lightbulb moment- "How about we go to the dango stall you like for breakfast? Ramen for dinner?"

 _...I could live with that._

"Deal."

With dango promised to me, I was on cloud nine despite the bullshit with the Council, despite the fact that we had to go through with mum's cruel and unusual punishment ( _aka, training_ ) before we headed out to meet Sakura. Who was just as happy as I was to grab some dango before the Academy.

"I could eat so much," Sakura trailed off, humming to herself under her breath, eyes shut and probably imagining dancing through a field of dango. Well, at least I was.

Naruto could roll his eyes and scoff, mutter under his breath about his precious ramen was ten times better than dango in the first place. We didn't care, we were getting dango for breakfast, easily making this the best day ever.

Mum simply asked that we didn't eat too much to prompt a coma during classes, she didn't need the teacher hauling her ass in about what she was feeding them.

"Look, Sasuke-kun's here." Sakura whispered, taking a step closer to me as if she could shield herself from him and whatever affections she was trying to stifle when in his presence. Apparently, Naruto heard her hushed whisper, face twisted into a grimace as he stared at the boy that was waiting around near the stall, looking very petulant and not wanting to be there.

"Blugh, _stupid bastard_ ," Naruto muttered under his breath, his dislike of Sasuke stemming more from the fact that Sasuke seemed to hit the high expectations which the teachers had for him. Not that Naruto knew that neither of them should really be hitting those heights at their age - all he saw was a kid doing better than him, being compared to someone else, constantly being in their shadow.

Where he'd picked up that kind of language -

Actually, no it's not that much of a mystery.

At the sight of his one-sided rival though, he dug his heels in, refusing to go in any further. And that simple wouldn't do.

Reaching around I grabbed Naruto's ear between finger and thumb, tugging harshly and making him yelp all the while keeping the placid and serene smile on my face. If anything Sakura's expression grew more cheery, there was a reason we were friends after all.

" _Naruto_ ," I sang, grinning whilst he grimaced. "Was I or was I not promised dango?"

He muttered under his breath, petulant but making no move to try and unclamp my fingers from his ear.

"We can't hear you!" Sakura cheered, poking her head around to grin at him - his cheeks flushing at the attention as well as the embarrassment since this was happening in the middle of the street. We weren't without an audience either.

" _Yes_." Oh god, he was sulky.

"Now, are you going to come to the dango stand with us? Or would you rather we went and got something else?" I offered, almost like I was caving in. You could see his eyes light up at the prospect, a win-win situation. Sakura turned to look at me, _aghast_ at the idea that they wouldn't be getting dango that morning.

"Yea-!"

"Which means no ramen for dinner since I was promised dango." I finished before he could hastily agree to my offered deal. His jaw snapping shut with an audible click whilst Sakura seemed to catch on, rolling her eyes but her grin returning - no longer looking like she wanted to rip my eyeballs out for taking away her promise dango.

Naruto visibly warred with himself before taking a reluctant step forward; his need for ramen outweighing his dislike for his supposed nemesis.

The words ' _Scary_ ' and ' _like her mum_ ' were thrown around as Naruto muttered, petulant in his defeat because _I won **again**_. Maybe I should've started to keep score? I didn't really care, Sakura and I gleeful as we waited in line for our turn to buy sweet _sweet_ goodness - Naruto hovering nearby but far enough that he didn't have to look at Sasuke every time he turned his head.

Said boy who looked a little wary when he spotted Sakura and I waiting for dango as if we'd turn ravenous and pounce on him like some of the other girls in the Academy tried to do. He was distinctly less interesting than dango.

I didn't know whether his fragile ego would be wounded by that, or he'd just be thankful we weren't going to act like his other rabid admirers.

"Mum gave me enough for two each," I told Sakura, who was eyeing the dumplings behind the counter lovingly. Our friendship would be on the foundations of laughing at idiots, helping one another out and dango. If Sakura ever thought she could escape my clutches before, she had no chance now. "But she also said no more dango for the rest of the week."

Sakura hummed, turning away from the glorious sight - "Want to ask my parents for dango next week then?"

I stared at her. "You're a genius."

She shrugged modestly but her cheeks still tinged pink, the older boy in front of us chuckling out our antics. The more I squinted at him though, the more I could - whipping my head over my shoulder, I caught sight of Sasuke waiting, looking less than patient. Oh.

Uchiha Itachi was stood in front of us in the line, laughing at us, looking very much not like the deranged psychopath that I'd been led to believe he would be.

There were many rumours in my many lives about why he'd slaughtered his clan, there was the theory that the pressure of being clan heir made him snap like a twig, there's the theory that he was thirsty for power, there was even the theory that he killed his clan on _orders_. The many rumours stacked up and all of them seemed as crazy as the other. I mean, what kind of boy kills all of his relatives sans his little brother?

The answer was stood right in front of us.

Apparently, he had a sweet tooth?

We quietly waited in line, watching our treats dutifully - Itachi Uchiha bought _four_ dango, and looked very intent on keeping them all for himself actually. He smiled at us as he walked past, heading over to where Sasuke stood, his face clearing of any sour emotion when his older brother came into sight. Probably happy at the idea that he could _leave_.

I didn't really have time to consider Sasuke or his older brother any longer than that though… there was dango to be had.

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 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 3550**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 15,768**


	6. Intro Arc: Dogmother

**TITLE:** Samsara

 **SUMMARY:** Reincarnation is a bitch and I'll be honest, I thinking they're just fucking about now.

 **AUTHOR NOTE:** Thank you once again for all your reviews and support! Sorry about the long gap between updates, exams and everything have finally stopped, so I'm _free!_ 200 follows though! And over 125 favourites! You guys are absoloutely amazing! This chapter I'm not exactly happy with and will probably end up tweaking in the late future but this is what it is for now. This is the last chapter of Yuna's Academy Arc and it's not time to move onto the Genin Teams! Which is finally where Kakashi can remerge, thank _god_.

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The _thud thud thud_ of kunai hitting the targets met me before I actually saw him.

It had been one of those rare weeks that mum was taken out of the village for more than a couple of days. It wasn't lost on me that since I was born, the longest mission she'd been on had lasted a week, at a stretch. I suppose though now that Naruto and I were growing up, in the Academy, we were going to be left to our own devices more often. Because be as it may, mum might have let us run riot a few years ago, she was still in the village whilst doing so.

It was strange, not to be woken up at the crack of dawn, thrown out of bed with an abnormal amount of glee. Mum claimed it was her favourite part of the day, _crazy woman._ Despite not being thrown out of bed, my internal alarm clock went off and I found it impossible to go back to sleep. So as I got dressed and ready to go to the field, I could hear the stomp of Naruto's feet above my head.

He probably didn't even realise that he didn't have to be up at this hour since mum wasn't technically there to enforce our cruel and unusual punishment: _training_.

The more I thought about it, grabbing my weapons pouch and heading out the door, Naruto and I weren't exactly left alone, not completely.

Kosuke and Sasaki dropped in interchangeably, more often than not bringing a meal with them so we didn't have to resort to instant ramen. Which was sweet of them, even if someone did seem to take the mothering the extreme.

Kosuke, whilst six foot four and a rippling mass of muscles, who read porn in his spare time, with two katanas strapped to his back more often than not; _complete mother hen_.

Look underneath the underneath I suppose.

My feet took me the usual route we took for the training grounds, at first, the ones we tended to use when mum was there to whip us into shape. I corrected myself though halfway there because I didn't like the idea of going to an empty field, no mum or Naruto there with me. It felt incredibly lonely to be going there without them.

It was probably the only reason that I came across someone else that morning, my own age and training as hard as we did before going to the Academy-

I had thought that Sasuke would use his Clan training grounds.

There was evidence that he'd been there a while as well, two empty water bottles laid off to the side as well as being an empty bento box left near his bags among the tree trunks. No doubt having the foresight to bring a change of clothes since he'd been working up a sweat as he worked with kunai, lining them up and looking incredibly frustrated as she continued to miss the bullseye by a mere inch.

But in this line of work, I recalled, mum's voice echoing in my head with a tone that chilled me, an inch means life or death.

Sasuke wasn't someone I interacted with, in fact, I hadn't spoken to him at all in the duration of the Academy. I didn't speak to a lot of the kids in our classes and that was more out of the effort to stay away from them than Naruto's influence, which is what my mum seemed to assume when she asked how well I was making friends there.

I could hardly be considered shy, **_really_** , there was no possible way that I was shy. Wary would be a better word for it perhaps. Naruto had stuck to me like glue since I first let him in, I say let, he practically kicked in the door and refused to leave. Not that I ever asked him to. Sakura sort of slid into our little pair quite nicely in an empty space I hadn't realised that was there. It seemed like to me that all the vacancies were taken, that I didn't need anyone else. They had my back no matter what.

A life lesson had been given to me, courtesy of mum though, who told me bluntly that the idea of only having two people to rely on- just two people, for the rest of my life. It was stupid and bordering on obscenely reckless not have more allies.

And if my **mum** was one to preach about some things recklessness, then you know it had to be bad.

It didn't make the prospect of making friends any more appealing though, there were few people I'd considered making friends with. Hinata was sweet, quiet and shy, had taken a liking to Naruto it seemed with the way she coloured if he even breathed near her. Shino was given a wide berth if only because kids were mean and bugs were icky. Shikamaru seemed like a low maintenance friend, with his habit of sleeping most of the classes away.

The choice was laid out to me, right there and then though; I had two options.

Before I could even consider them though, Sasuke's head snapped over towards me, noticing me which instantly ruined the option of turning around and going to my usual training ground without being noticed whatsoever. Which left me with last option, even if I did think he was an arrogant brat.

One which lost the entirety of his clan in one night at the hands of his brother, but, early days.

Sasuke wasn't ugly and I could see what the girls, and Sakura, fussed about. Even when he seemed to be trying to set me on fire with his glare from where he stood, kunai in hand, looking pissed at the idea of his training being interrupted. And I'd be irritable too if I had a posse of admirers stalking his every movement during Academy hours. He was pretty, I supposed. The Uchiha Clan were renowned for their dark hair and eyes, superior genetics I'd once heard a Jonin crow.

What a load of _bullshit_.

Personally, I found the Fourth Hokage more attractive - but, each to their own I supposed.

Pursing my lips, I considered Sasuke and then his targets. The kunai's buried deeply within the wood, making me wonder how much training his clan had given him to begin with. I didn't give him time to hiss insults at me, yell or tell me to leave. I simply nodded in his general direction. "You're flicking your wrist too much."

His flush rose steadily from his neck, though I didn't know whether he was angry or if it was out of embarrassment.

I didn't stick around to find out which it was.

"See you in class," I said, waving over my shoulder and deciding just to retreat back to the usual training field - not looking back and resigning myself to training in the empty open space.

Imagine my surprise at finding Naruto there.

Sat in the grass. Looking confused and sleepy.

"Training?" He mumbled, rubbing at his eyes and looking around blearily. I didn't have the heart to tell him his shirt was on back to front, nor did I comment on the fact that he looked ready to topple over and go back to sleep. He usually perked up after his stretches anyways.

We ran through the usual checklist of activities and it was only as we finished up our quick spar did we take a break.

"That hurt," Naruto whined, rubbing his hip where I'd managed to land a kick in.

"Yeah, well, shut up" I huffed, hissing as I tried to massage the feeling back into my shin because the impact seemed to hurt just as much as the kick itself. The two of us sat in the grass once again, stretching to cool down as a shadow stretched across us.

The same person that'd been watching us for most of our spar.

"Ah, you must be Chiho's brats," The woman said with an almost… vicious grin.

The red triangles on her cheeks told us Inuzuka, the grin told us crazy. Which probably made sense if she knew mum. A lot of the time, people came out of the woodworks with random stories about how they knew mum. She didn't talk a lot about her career as a shinobi, mostly just the nostalgic stories about her team back in their genin days. I wondered what rank mum was considered some days, and then others I decided I was better off not knowing.

I didn't ask for any stories above genin, I knew how badly they could go.

I thanked the Hokage's that she was capped at B Rank currently due to her inactivity in the field, thanks to yours truly.

"Must be." I couldn't help but bite back, eyeing her with a frown because it seemed that Konoha Shinobi were meddlesome than most. With my previous name in Iwa, your business was your own, no one gave a shit what you did as long as it didn't go against Iwa as a whole.

I suppose Konoha had an image to uphold though, we were the good guys, we protected the innocent and helped the poor - at least, that was what they wanted you to think.

The Inuzuka woman didn't seem to care about the tone I spoke in, continuing to grin at us with her fangs bared almost threateningly whilst her eyes drifted between Naruto and I. The former paying more attention to her ninken partner than the woman, the distinctly unfriendly looking dog who simply stared right back at him.

I wondered if the dog could smell the fox on him, or he was used to staring contest with brats.

If he came from the same clan as Kiba, I wouldn't really be that surprised.

"Y'know, I haven't seen you since you were just a tiny little worm," The woman continued, her focus more on me this time as she seemed to frown, sizing me up in comparison to the last time she laid eyes on me. Which had to be a long time ago since I couldn't recall ever meeting her. Crouching down so I wasn't going to strain my neck looking up at her - "You had an attitude even then."

" ...thanks?"

Her barking laughter was loud in the clearing. "Oh kid, you don't even know who I am, do you?"

Naruto was frowning now as well, though he still hadn't broken his staring contest with the dog by her side. "Am I supposed to?"

The woman's grin was feral now, all amusement and sharp teeth and the same sadistic glee that mum had when she tossed us out of bed at the crack of dawn - it wasn't surprising they were friends. "Considering I'm your godmother, then yeah, suppose so. Inuzuka Tsume."

The introduction was rather lacking but apparently, my wide eyes and confused expression were exactly what Tsume had been looking for since she started laughing again. Tsume's head tipped back and a hand on her partner's head who seemed very used to her antics. Naruto glancing between the older woman and myself now, a crease in his forehead and I could practically see him trying to solve what that actually meant.

"Oh… cool?"

"Oh god, you're like a mini-Chiho, aren't you?" I didn't know if Tsume was looking for answers to her questions or if she was just going to hurl these kinds of open-ended statements at me until she fulfilled a quota or something. Mine and Naruto's blank stares didn't seem to phase her whatsoever as she continued to cackle like this was the funniest shit she'd ever seen/heard/experienced in her life. "Jeez, you sound just like her at that age."

"What'd you want anyways?" Naruto cut across, rather rudely but I couldn't help but agree.

Was there a point to this or another weird Shinobi popping in to say hi! and talk about how they know my mum?

Tsume didn't seem to mind the lack of manners but instead appreciated Naruto's bluntness, she grinned appreciatively down at the boy. "I'm gonna train you two brats today after the Academy."

"Is this to make up for the fact that you're a terrible godmother?" I deadpanned.

The Inuzuka woman hesitated for a second, squinting down at me suspiciously "...In all seriousness, are you a Chiho clone or… ?"

"Why should I even take your word for it? All I know, you could be some strange creepy lady who lures children into her home with the promises of dango," I refuted, rolling my eyes and completely ignoring that previous question. Oh, dango, I could've gone for some of that at that point. "I mean, it's kinda just your word."

Naruto looked like he'd been bonked over the head, he obviously hadn't thought about that and had been ready to simply take her words at face value.

I'd need to talk to him about that.

"Suspicious little brat, aren't you?" Tsume hummed to herself, a hand resting on her partner's head. "Good, that'll get you far. I don't have any proof but you're still going to meet me for training."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto challenged

"Mm, you're too curious not to." Was what she left on, leaving in a swirl of leaves and an echo of dynamic exit rang through my head for some reason. Her ninken having vanished along with her, leaving us alone once again, sat in the grass as the sun crawled along the horizon.

"We're gonna be late," Naruto mumbled absentmindedly.

"Iruka-sensei's gonna kill us," I mumbled faintly in agreement, but even though it was said outloud, we didn't really act on our words. Taking a slow and ambling pace towards the Academy, sliding into our seats seconds before class began.

To say I was distracted was an understatement, Naruto could never pay attention in the first place; he had the equivalent attention span of a gnat. Still, it was worse today, we were ready to go. Tsume was right, we were too curious. The downfall of Shinobi, we were nosy bastards. All of us. Couldn't leave well enough alone if there was something we wanted to know.

Sasuke shot me a few weird glances that had Sakura up in arms for a minute or two, huffy and puffy about the glances he was sending my way until you could practically see the hot air being deflated out of her.

"I may or may not have insulted him this morning… _possibly_ ," I admitted.

I was pretty sure I didn't insult him but I wasn't sure how my comments came across to him. I didn't speak to him and he didn't speak to me. I was part of the small and select group of girls that didn't follow him around like drooling dogs - a group that included Hinata and now Sakura after a few conversations.

"Possibly?" Sakura didn't sound angry that I'd insulted her so called future husband, if anything she sounded amused. A small smirk curling her lips. "How can you _possibly_ insult someone?"

I shrugged, ducking my head when Iruka's sharp gaze started to scour the room for the perpetrators who dared to talk during his lessons - "I dunno, I seem to do it a lot though." I whispered.

"Yuna, do you have something to share with the class?" Iruka-sensei called out, tapping his foot impatiently, looking distinctly unimpressed.

I felt to colour flood to my cheeks at being caught out, quietly mumbling a quick - "No Iruka-sensei."

I think it was safe to say that everyone was glad for the day of lessons to be over, all of us shuffling our papers and gathering all of our work for the day to be handed into Iruka-sensei to be submitted. The mass of children streaming out of the building, gleeful at escaping the building to go about their own business.

Sakura gently pulled at my sleeve as we wandered out, Naruto lost somewhere within the throng of people.

At first is was a gentle tug but then it became quite insistent the further away we got from the Academy.

"There's a woman staring at you," Sakura murmured quietly, brow puckered and almost glaring back at where Tsume stood. "Do you… know her?"

She looked so adorably confused and I just wanted to pinch her cheeks at times like this.

To be fair, Tsume did look like a creeper. Hovering outside the Academy but still a distance away from where few parents stood to collect their children. In fact, she ignored Kiba completely other than hissing something about seeing him at home; pulling her gaze away from second only to scan across the masses of children, trying to pinpoint us once more.

I could tell when she found us without even looking, Sakura's startled squeak giving it away.

"Yuna! _Please_ tell me you know her!" Sakura hissed, grabbing my arm and shaking me.

"Apparently I have a godmother." Was all I offered her dryly but Sakura still didn't release me, whimpering ever so slightly as Tsume strode towards us. Teeth bared in a feral grin as she got closer. I think she was enjoying seeing Sakura squirm since there was a distinct lack of reaction from both Naruto and I early this morning. She was probably getting a real kick out of Sakura's reaction.

"Hey brat, you ready to go?" Tsume asked but it wasn't really a question.

Sakura was hesitant to let me go, which was sweet, wary about letting me wander off with who she perceived to be a complete stranger to us - and she wasn't exactly wrong. I'd only met Tsume twice, the first time I couldn't even recall and we didn't even know the truth of her words, her supposed godmother position which made little sense to me in the first place.

Where had she been all this time?

Still, Naruto was coming with me, Tsume was, in fact, the head of her Clan from what I'd gathered in my little snoop fest during Academy hours. Kiba only happy enough to tell us about his mother… which explained so much. About Tsume or Kiba, maybe even a bit of both. So things felt… a little less shady, if only by the smallest fraction.

Naruto's arm looping through mine, I didn't know when he'd managed to make his way over.

"Y'gonna teach us some cool stuff or what, lady?" He asked rather rudely but it was part of his charm, to be honest, he could probably get away with anything with a grin like that.

Tsume scoffed, "Of course I am, brat. What'dyou take me for?"

And that was that, Sakura walked with us halfway to the training fields and extracted promises from the pair of us that we'd meet her tomorrow morning so she knew that we weren't dead. ( _"Who else am I going to eat dango with?"_ ) - Isn't she the sweetest? I couldn't help but snicker under my breath as Sakura gave the equivalent of ' _I've got my eyes on you_ ' gesture to Tsume, who was infinitely amused as well.

Her glare sticking with us until she rounded the corner, heading towards the civilian district.

"She's got fire, that girl," The older woman commented, Naruto's dreamy sigh accompanying his nod. "Alright, let's go, quicker we get there, the quicker you can have your stuff."

Those were the right words to say, Naruto immediately perking up and practically bouncing as we strolled towards the same training field we'd used that very same morning that seemed so long ago. The Academy had that effect though.

"Is it a super-cool present?" Naruto asked, looking excited at the prospect because what was mine was his.

Buffing her nails against her flak jacket, Tsume looked a touch smug- "Actually, brat, _it is_."

As we toed the edge of the empty training field, the older woman rummaged around in her pouch before producing what I assumed to be this super-cool present.

"I got you these," Tsume said, holding out what seemed to be a simple silver bracelet, thin and metal. There didn't seem to be anything special about it, just a simple and pretty bracelet but I knew better than to trust appearances alone.

I took it warily, sliding it on my wrist and watched as Tsume reached over, channelling a little bit of her chakra into the piece of jewellery.

It was fascinating to watch as the metal adjusted in size so it wouldn't fall off but it wasn't too tight that it would chafe or annoy me; not to mention - the distinct increase of weight from that band alone. I'd worked with weights before, set weights which you could purchase from any Shinobi store. These were crafted to specifically tailored to the individual using them, for gradual build up.

Tsume smiled with the faintest chuckle, bringing out three more silver bands, presumably another for my other wrist and the other two to fasten around my ankles. "They were Hana's first set, Chiho got them for her as a birthday present and I thought I'd return the favour since I missed… well, all of your birthdays."

Blunt and to the point, it was always appreciated whilst in a career of deception.

Her smile growing from what could've been perceived as a nostalgic smile to the same feral grin we'd been greeted with that morning - something which seemed so long ago with the day we were having. "It'll help with what I have planned for you today."

Naruto and I visibly grimaced, determined but wary.

* * *

To say that Sasaki looked mildly unimpressed as Tsume towed us back home was an understatement.

Tsume looked rather sheepish in the line of his glare- which was mildly impressive. I'd never seen laid back and go-with-the-flow Sasaki look _so fucking done_ with life as when he opened the door to us at that moment. Naruto and I thought it was hilarious as Tsume visibly squirmed under the younger man's glare. The two of us sliding in and leaving the adults to it.

To be fair, his eyes were pretty intimidating, dark and sharp, and I'm pretty sure that he was part of the Interrogation Unit these days.

"Really? _Really Tsume_?" He asked quietly, arms folded over his chest as he leant against the doorframe whilst Naruto and I giggled from the bathroom like we'd heard our first bad word. The first aid open and scattered in front of us but we were much more interested in what was unfolding at the door.

Tsume seemed to almost pout - "They wanted to learn, how could I say no to those little faces?"

He rolled his eyes, or at least I think he did, his back was to us but it's a very Sasaki thing to do. "Like you do to Kiba, like you do to the clan elders, like you did to _me_ when I asked you to pass the salt _last week_."

"Tension." Naruto whispered to me, eyes wide and sadistically gleeful.

...mum was a terrible influence.

"I didn't hear you!" Tsume insisted, Kuromaru looking the faintest bit amused as he settled down on the floor in the hallway for what her perceived to be a long argument.

 _Smart_.

"You heard Kosuke asking for it a second later though, _oh, my senses are far superior to everyone else's, I'm an Inuzuka_ ," Sasaki mocked jovially with exaggerated motions, Tsume's expression blanching before her nose pinched like there was a bad smell in the room.

"I don't sound like that."

"Oh god, _yes you do_!"

"That was a terrible impersonation, you wouldn't last ten minutes in covert ops!"

Sasaki's hands flew up to pull at his hair, blowing out a billowy breath which practically spelt out ' _How did it come to this?_ ' - I don't know Sasaki, I'm sorry for this madness. "Not the point! The kids weren't supposed to start with weapons in a spar yet for a reason! Both of them are too competitive and don't know their own limits yet."

Naruto and I looked at each other with begrudging shrugs.

Well, they weren't wrong.

"I'm sorry, there, _you happy_?" Tsume grumbled, hands shoved in her pockets, kicking the floor and looking like a scolded child despite being the oldest out of the five of us, and that's including Kuromaru. "I got a bit overzealous with the _godmother_ thing since I haven't been able to see Yuna since she was a babe, okay? Is that what you want to hear?"

Sasaki snorted under his breath but you can tell he softened.

"I'd like to hear _Sasaki is the best and coolest and strongest Shinobi I've ever met_ as well," He quipped tartly which just made Tsume's hackles rise once again. I genuinely think he liked arguing with her, some weird kind of flirtation.

"Tension." I repeated back to Naruto, probably with the same sadistic glee.

By now the scrapes and cuts had stopped bleeding, they were shallow and superficial. They'd probably have scabbed over by tomorrow and the bruises would yellow, it'd hurt but the fact was that the training session with Tsume had been fun. In a weird, crazy, mad way.

Of course, it'd all led back to this squabble between Sasaki and her outside our front door but it was well worth it.

Sasuke's face, when both Naruto and I nailed more bullseyes than him during our practice with kunai, had been priceless.

Of course, then Sasuke didn't turn up to the Academy for a long stretch of time and the news of what happened to his clan spread throughout the village.

It almost seemed like the lightheartedness of the Academy faded a little that day.

* * *

 **CHAPTER WORD COUNT: 4394**

 **STORY WORD COUNT: 20,162**


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